The winner of this year’s Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, is Lojman, written by Ebru Ojen, translated by Aron Aji and Selin Gökçesu, and published by City Lights.
Lori Feathers, the prize’s founder and jury chair, announced the novel’s win in a news release, calling the novel “arresting.”
Published in the U.S. last August, Lojman follows a woman in Turkish Kurdistan who gives birth to her third child after being abandoned by her husband and trapped in a snowstorm. A critic for Kirkus called the novel “a stark, grim portrait of despair.” It is the third novel from the Istanbul-based Ojen, whose previous books were Vaccine and Let the Carnivores Kill Each Other.
“We believe that Lojman and its journey to North American readers exemplifies the passion, vision, and risk-taking for which the Prize was founded,” Feathers said in a statement. “It is our hope that this recognition will bring new readers to Ms. Ojen’s work and foster City Lights’ commitment to surprising and original fiction.”
The Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, the North American iteration of a U.K. award, is “designed to celebrate the commitment of independent presses to fiction of exceptional literary merit.” This is the second year for the prize; the inaugural winner was Arinze Ifeakandu and A Public Space Books for God’s Children Are Little Broken Things.
The prize fund of $35,000 will be distributed among the finalist presses, authors, and translators.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
